Mad's Mini Essays

1. An exploration of the atomic bomb as a symbol in the novel
Michael Ondaatje uses the atomic bomb as a symbol for the destruction of the past in the novel The English Patient. The character int eh novel lives are obstructed by destruction and loss in the past, just as an atomic bomb destroys everything. Kip believes in saving lives, not taking them away. He spends his time saving and helping people he has never seen before. As Kip uses all this time and effort to save people, like Hana, it all seems for nothing when the atomic bomb is dropped. The atomic bomb is something so powerful that it cannot be stopped, and that it is going to kill people no matter what. So there is no point in saving lives when they are just going to die anyways. Kip does not understand why England would kill their own people, and why anyone would kill another human being for no apparent reason. Also the atomic not only kills people, it kills the people who create a nation. It creates a loss of identity since those you associate with are now gone. Even though the atomic bomb killed many, those who survived ended up closer together. In the end it brings together people of the same nationality who now see family in strangers.

2. A comparison of the novel and the film adaptation by Anthony Minghella
As in each replication of a novel into a movie, the missing parts, and differences stand out. It is hard to make a book into a movie since the imagery from the novel is hard to duplicate. We each picture the characters a certain way and when it is made into a movie our imagination is thrown out the window. It is easier to add imagery and specific detail into a novel compared to the movie given that Michael Ondaatje is writing a story out of his own imagination and does not have to deal with modern locations looking like the past. The directors’ idea about the novel is the only one that matters now, since he or she is in charge of how the movie will look. While watching the English Patient the cinematography was spectacular with the aerial shots and the landscape was tantalizing. However it did not match up with the novel. There were numerous parts in Anthony Minghella’s rendition of the novel that were either later or earlier in the novel, or written completely different then showed in the movie. Yet in the end I enjoyed both the novel and the movie of The English Patient and same, and both presented interesting ideas.

3. A close analysis of a single character; perhaps an argument about who you think is the protagonist of the novel.
After finishing The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje I say that Almay is the protagonist of the novel. Because, not only do we read about his life and experiences, we also read about how he grows and changes the people around him. We also read about the different emotions and pain he goes through throughout the novel. For example what he feels when he is with Katherine, alone in the desert, with his comrades, and then when he is with Hana. Also as we read on we discover that Almay’s goal is to obtain nothingness, to leave nations, nationality and identity behind altogether. And by the end he acquires this goal when no one knows who he is or where he is from. He can hide from him self, and from what he has done. Even though no one knows who he is, he still affects their lives and changes them in some way. This is well illustrated when he is in the care of Hana, who ends up having a happier life with him in the villa, then she would as a nurse for the war. Almay grows and learns from his past, not like Hana who ends up hiding her self away in a villa when she does not want to face the warring world anymore.

4. An essay tracing one of the novel’s key motifs—life fire and burning, or gardens, or deserts/desertion.
Each character has had a major desertion in their life that effects the way they live their lives now. Each loss follows the character throughout the novel, and keeps affecting them long after it happened. Hana, Almay and Kip all experience a significant lost, or desertion in their life in the novel. Each is different, however at the same time it effects each of their relationships and ideas with each other in a similar way. All are intertwined by the loss of a loved one. Hana loses her father and regrets not being there for him. Or not trying to help him since she is a nurse and saves people everyday, but could not save her father. Furthermore Hana feels as if each person she gets close to ends up dieing, and that she has no one left to talk to. Almay loss has to do with identity. He wants to disappear from countries, England, Germany, the Sahara desert, and from the pain of losing Katherine. Not having her love him in return was and still is his worst loss, since now he is left with only the memories of her. Kip loses the only family he has when they die while disarming bombs. The family he has created with them is gone in an instant and there was nothing he could do. These three characters lose what is important to them and in return are stuck. Their void is like a desert, barren and endless. The desertion by what brings them happiness affects everything they do in the novel.

5. An essay articulating a central theme of the novel—the cost of war; the war between the personal and the public; the manifold obstacle to human intimacy; etc.
The central theme of the novel is the inability to get close to anyone; the obstacles of human intimacy. Hana, Almay, Kip and even Carvaggio have their own problems in getting close to anyone. It appears that each time they get close to a person, that person either dies or goes away. The past pain and loss of losing loved ones has hindered their ability to get close to others. They fear loss that then entails fearing intimacy since they go hand in hand. All of these characters are experience the same feelings, but since they are closed off to each other no one else knows but them selves. The loss of human intimacy can be traced back to their jobs, and how they decide to live their lives. Take Hana for example, she is a nurse who helps people heal and become well again. When that person she has treated is well they are sent off. If she becomes attached to them it will not do her any good since they are going to leave her no matter what. The people she gets close to can be considered her family, then the people she considers her family usually leave her and create loss and pain within her life. This is true for Almay, Kip and Carvaggio who also do not get close to people because it usually ends up in a painful loss. This barrier each character has against human intimacy is something they have to over come, however never will because they refuse to risk feeling the pain they already suffered in the past.